Seeing the positive sides of post-earthquake Christchurch

The last times I drove through Christchurch I was shocked – by the empty streets of the CBD, the cracks in the houses, the ruins of cathedrals and office buildings. Back then I remember feeling relieved when I could leave the city and its sad vibe behind. Driving through on my way up to the North Island, I decided to open my eyes for the not so obvious stuff, to look behind the ruins and cracks and find the hidden gems of a resurrecting city. And this time I was almost sad when I left, wishing I had more time to explore the projects and happy corners of the city. Here’s a collection of the projects that surprised me the most – in a positive way:

Idea #2: The Re:START area is a bright, colourful open air shopping mall in between the ruins, built of prefabricated shipping containers with the goal to offer a retail space to Christchurch inhabitants and businesses

Idea #4: Christchurch inhabitants taking the demolition of their city with humor and voting demolition sites or recognizing that it’s all about the people

Idea #5: The cycle-powered cinema is an open air cinema where spectators can bring along their bikes, strap them into the provided stations and thus generate the needed power necessary

Idea #6: Dino-Sauna is a relocatable sauna tent – as a social experiment and antidote to the cold in Christchurch

Idea #7: The Dance-O-Mat is a dance floor on a vacant site with a washing machine where anyone can come to, plug their MP3 player / iPod / iPhone in, turn on the lights and sound by inserting a coin into a laundry (Get it? Laundromat – Dance-o-Mat ;))

This is obviously just a small part of all the cool and creative projects going on in Christchurch at the moment. If you ever visit New Zealand make sure that Christchurch is on your travel route and open your eyes to the not so obvious things going on.